As part of a student project geared toward the fourth through eighth grades, students were asked to identify and draw lines of symmetry in each letter of their name. "M," for example, has one vertical line of symmetry; "H" has both a vertical and a horizontal line of symmetry. Compared to their peers, they were then asked who had the most or least symmetrical name. Following this, they were asked to rewrite their names as "art" on blank paper, and try to carefully draw the characters so they were as symmetric as possible. After they finished creating their names as art, they were then supposed to mark the lines of symmetry they found.
Some names are completely symmetric, such as Debbie. It can be flipped top to bottom and still read the same because each letter has a horizontal line of symmetry. Tom, Timothy, and Hiawatha can be written vertically and then flipped left to right because all the letters have vertical lines of symmetry. But what does all this mean in terms of naming your baby? What does the physical look of the letters have to do with it?
"If you allow distorted letters, most names can be made to look symmetrical," explains Scott Kim (www.scottkim.com), an independent game designer who designs original visual thinking puzzles for the Web, computer games, magazines, and toys. Kim guesses, however, that that's not what parents are looking for. Parents probably want names that are palindromes--names that are spelled the same backward--but not graphically the same upside down. "For instance, my friend Jef Raskin named his three kids Aza, Aviva, and Aenea, and my brother named his first son Mike Kim," he says.
Below, Kim supplies us with a list of 26 first names, one for each letter of the alphabet. Some are written in capitals, small letters, and mixed. "Each lettering style occurs exactly twice, once as a boy's name and once as a girl's name," he says. "Names that start with letters at opposite ends of the alphabet (Annie and Zane, for instance) appear on opposite sides of the center of the design." In addition to vertical and horizontal symmetry, some have rotational symmetry (they look the same right side up) or reflective symmetry (they look the same in a mirror). Only the name Otto has both rotational and reflective symmetry.
Name Symmetry Same Style As
a-nni-e Rotation z-a-n-e
B-O-B H Mirror Y-V-E-T-T-E
C-a-n-d-y Rotation Q-u-i-n-cy
D-E-B-B-I-E H Mirror T-I-M-O-T-H-Y
E-V-E V Mirror w-a-r-r-e-n
F-ra-nc-in-e Rotation mi-ch-ael
G-r-e-g Rotation Ire-ne
HAN-NAH Rotation NAT-HAN
Ire-ne Rotation G-r-e-g
J-u-l-i-a-n Rotation L-i-l-y
ki-m Rotation R-ob-in
L-i-l-y Rotation J-u-l-i-a-n
mi-ch-ael Rotation F-ra-nc-in-e
NAT-HAN Rotation HAN-NAH
O-T-T-O Both U-N-A
P-h-i-li-p Rotation v-i-rg-in-i-a
Q-u-i-n-cy Rotation C-a-n-d-y
R-ob-in Rotation ki-m
S-u-zan-n-e Rotation x-a-v-i-e-r
T-I-M-O-T-H-Y V Mirror D-E-B-B-I-E
U-N-A Rotation O-T-T-O
v-i-rg-in-i-a Rotation P-h-i-li-p
w-a-r-r-e-n Rotation E-V-E
x-a-v-i-e-r Rotation S-u-zan-n-e
Y-V-E-T-T-E V Mirror B-O-B
z-a-n-e V Mirror a-nni-e
People choose a name for sound, and they may also like how the name looks. But perhaps the love of the look is related more to their excitement about the hope and joy their baby will bring.